Dark Choice
by Chaos Excalibur
Summary: After the terrible conclusion of the Mandalorian Wars, Revan and Malak are exiled by the Jedi Council. Uncertain about their future, they set out in a quest for the lengendary Star Forge. In the Unknown Regions, they will confront a deadly menace.


**Prelude**

A long, long time ago…….

In a galaxy far, far away…….

A Dark Lord was born…….

A great battle waged…….

The saga begins…….

The blaze of Dantooine's sun highlighted the shadows of two men. They were standing outside an entrance to an ancient temple. The taller of the two, with a clean shaved head, paced in frustration. _I know this is it. I can feel it. So, what are we waiting for?_

The other man turned to face him and smirked. "Honestly, Malak. Would it kill you to just wait a little longer," he said, seemingly unconcerned with the surge of power in the Force. A staggering one; coming straight from the mysterious depths of the temple.

"I am telling you Revan, this is it. And I would like to know why we are standing here practically doing nothing, except getting a nice sunburn," pressed Malak.

"Can you not sense the power inside the temple? We must proceed with caution." The man named Revan answered.

"I do feel it. The force is strong in there. But what are we waiting for?" Malak questioned. Revan was silent. Malak waited for a moment, then began, "Revan…"

"I wanted you to consider your choices, Malak." Revan cut him softly. "You do realize that there is no going back if we enter this temple. I wanted you to think carefully before you take this path of no return. I cannot ask you to follow me into de…"

Malak held up a hand and Revan fell silent. Malak placed his hand on Revan's shoulder, a sign of reassurance. He said warmly, "Revan, you are my one and only true friend. I will follow you to whatever end"

Revan hesitated. Then his face broke into a brilliant smile, a smile which Malak had not seen in a very long time indeed.

Revan turned and announced brightly; "If there is nothing else, I guess we should enter the temple now." He stepped forward.

Suddenly, a reverberation shook the ground the ancient door opened with a tremendous groan.

It was Malak who broke out of the shock first. "How did you do that?" he queried.

Revan was just as dumb folded, "I don't know."

He shrugged. "After you." he suggested with a mocking smile. Malak's look of surprise was replaced by a scowl. Whoever went in there first would be the first to get hit by the temple's defenses though he doubted it had any. Still, he had not survived the Mandalorian Wars by taking unnecessary chances, so resting his fingers on his lightsaber attached to his belt; he walked with a determination that was unmistakable into the waiting darkness.

As the Jedi strode briskly into the ingeniously hidden underground chamber, an increasing sense of foreboding rose in Revan. The Force was _strong_ in here but it was not clean but rather tainted by a dark energy. He felt uneasy. He wondered if it had been a mistake to come here where the dark side was so strong. He rested his hand on the smooth hilt of his lightsaber, ready for battle.

At the end of the chamber was another door; ancient like the one they just entered. It seemed to be made of some light grey stone that glistened in the faint light. Closer inspection revealed that it was actually exquisitely adorned by some sort of runes alien to the two men. Revan and Malak went forward. Malak made to draw his lightsaber but Revan stopped him with a hand on his arm.

"What?" Malak asked. After the long wait outside, he was eager to use the weapon he built with his own hands and cause some carnage.

"Wait" Revan said. He walked up to the door and brushed a hand over it, examining it closely. After a short while, Revan announced, "Just as I expected. The entire door is made from _cortosis_."

_ Cortosis_ was a mineral with unique properties. It was capable of shorting out lightsabers upon contact. It was common for normal soldiers to carry _cortosis_ weaponry to defend themselves against enemies wielding lightsabers, though whoever heard of building a wall made up of _cortosis_.

"Pure _cortosis? _Are you sure? Who would use such a mineral in building a door?"

Revan answer was artificially sweet. "Of course, I could be wrong so you're welcome to try cutting through the door." He stepped aside and gave Malak a clear path to the door, "Go ahead and try"

Malak scowled again. "Fine. So what do we do now? Go back to the enclave and get some thorium charges?" Revan shook his head. "No. Waste of time. We won't be welcome there. I think we should be able to use the Force to blast open the door."

Though _cortosis _was capable of repelling lightsabers, the mineral in its pure form was extremely brittle and could easily crumble of hit hard enough with a blow of sufficient strength. Revan calculated that one good strike and the door would be open.

Just as the two Jedi gathered the force and prepared to throw a giant telekinetic punch that would have crushed a wide hole in a _Consula_r-class Space Cruiser, the temple's defenses activated as though it had expected the Jedi to make such a move.

A solid wall of light emanated from the wall and cut them off to a remote side of the room. They were trapped. Malak charged forward. Igniting his lightsaber revealing a glowing orange beam, he slashed at the energy wall. Instead of disrupting it as he had expected, a shower of sparks followed the clash between energy and energy and he was almost thrown off his feet by the impact.

Suddenly, holes in the ceiling appeared and war droids of an alien design dropped down into the chamber with the Jedi. Standing man-high, supported by four legs, it resembled a vicious kinrath, a predator of the planet Kashyyyk. They were armed with deadly looking blaster rifles and a large flamethrower mounted on their metal arms.

With that all fifteen of them went into battle.

Malak shouted to Revan, "I can handle this. You work on disabling the force-field." Revan used the Force to show his friend that he understood. _Agreed, _he transmitted through the Force.

Malak charged forward, drawing the fire of the droids. The droids immediately turned on him and sent a screaming hailstorm of red blaster bolts at him. Malak brought his lightsaber up to guard and efficiently and meticulously deflected every bolt back at them. He was surprised when the droids took the torrent of energy head-on and when the deep smoke dissipated found that they took little to no damage.

_Uh oh.  
_

Wasting no time, he charged again and covered the distance between him and the closest droid in a second. He slashed… and he was gratified that the droids were not lightsaber resistant as the droids' head was flung towards the wall of light by the force of Malak's blow and disintegrated with a flash.

_I could use that to my advantage_.

As he frantically deflected the blaster shots, he mentally gripped three droids with the power of the Force and with a push sent them flying towards the force field. They exploded with a boom. The droids seeming to catch on to Malak's strategy tried moving further away from the force field.

Malak would have none of that and somersaulted over the droids and landed perfectly balanced into their midst. The droids had made a fatal mistake. They were all crowded against one another as they hoped to serve as an impenetrable wall that would keep the Jedi at bay, which was why they were unprepared when Malak landed behind them. One single flash and three heads went rolling and a backswing sent another two droids carved in half clattering on the floor.

_Nine down, six to go_

Malak leapt away from them as the remaining droids have compensated for their error and turned around and started firing at him again. It wasn't until he was in the clear that he realized that he was panting heavily. One blaster bolt made through his defenses and singed his tunic. The droids were better than he had believed and were succeeding in wearing him down. Also, two peeled off from the remaining six and were heading for Revan who was now cutting a hole in the wall.

_No! I can't slow down. I need strength! I need strength!_

With that single thought, he opened himself fully to the Force. The Force drove away his exhaustion and expanded his senses. He sensed the dark presence of the temple and manipulated it to fuel his strength and stamina. He marveled at the power and strength it had brought him.

_Revan was wrong. There is nothing to be cautious about with this energy. It is making me stronger than ever and I have never felt so powerful in my life before._

Newly rejuvenated, Malak exploded into action. He gestured with his hand and sent out a wave of titanic energy towards the droids. Three was plastered against the wall and did not move anymore. It appeared that the Force wave have crushed their bodies into scrap. The last one facing Malak had fell to the ground and was attempting to get up.

Slowly, contemptuously, Malak walked towards it and chopped off both of its arms. He raised his blade high in the air for the finishing blow. He stabbed down. The smell of burnt systems and fried circuits filled the air. With that, the force field deactivated and shut down. He looked towards Revan just in time to see him cutting down the last two droids.

Revan had not been idle when Malak bought him the time he needed. It was essential that the force field be shut down so that they would not be pinned down by the droids. He opened himself to the Force completely. In his expanded awareness, he could sense everything in the chamber. He was the dusty floor, he was the energy wall, he was thecool and efficient droids, he was Malakand he was the door adorned by the strange runes.

Suddenly, he realized that Malak was in grave danger.

_I need to hurry. _

He intensified his search.

_There! I found it._

He located the energy source. It was in the wall just behind him. He felt a strange feeling.

_Malak is using the dark energy in the Force to augment his abilities. Interesting. Maybe I should talk to him later about it. For now, I need to focus on my task._

Using his lightsaber, he melted a rectangle in the wall and plucked off a series of complex wires with deceiving ease. As sudden as its activation, theforce fieldwent off.

Out of a sudden, the Force screamed at him and he ducked. He saw a linked pair of blaster bolts hit the spot where his head had been. Two droids were firing at him, ten meters away. His two lightsabers flew off his belt and into his hands. He activated them. He ran forwards, deflecting bolts with his blazing blades of purple and blue and running a wild zig-zag course, confusing them, he reached the two droids. His left lightsaber slashed a droid's legs, severing them and the other lightsaber buried itself in its chest. Never breaking his speed, Revan used the last of his momentum and ended the last threat with a precise scissor-slash with both his lightsaber that left the war droid headless.

He gazed towards Malak who was also looking at him.

"Took you long enough," said Malak, wiping the sweat off his brows.

"You seemed to handle yourself pretty well," Revan said surveying the wreckage of the battlefield "though if it was me, I would not have left quite a mess."

"Oh, Shut up! So what now?" Malak said.

"I knew there would be protective measures around this," Revan quietly said "we could not damage the force field with our lightsabers, this proves that those who built this must have been of anadvanced civilization."

"Whatever." Malak muttered. Sometimes, it was irritating being around Revan as he tended to overanalyze things. With a deafening rumbling, the door made of cortosis opened. The two men exchanged glances.

Revan said, "It must have been a test."

"So it may seem."

"C'mon," said Revan, "we have more important matters to deal with."

Swiftly, the duo made their way beyond, wariness flashing in their eyes. They emerged into a semi-circular dome. Something lay in the treacherous gloom and as they approached it, they were rewarded by a series of lights. Having completed their objective, they turned to leave. Out of the blue, the hiss of pressurized gas valves opening filled the air with a tinge of ominous feelings. A poisonous gas was released.

But there was nothing left for them to linger anymore. The two Jedi knights took off with Force-enhanced speed and rushed out of the temple and into the glorious sun again..

"This is it… The quest for the forge has begun," said Revan with a smile, "We shall not fail."

Little was the far-sighted Jedi aware if what lay in store for them.


End file.
